WHAT THEY SAY
It is extremely difficult when his life is being decided by third parties – making life or death decisions based on politics. He’s very strong... we have to fight back. His instinct is to fight back and so is mine. We’re going to fight back harder – Stella Assange, the wife of Julian Assange speaking after the Home Secretary signed an order to extradite the WikiLeaks founder to the United States.
He’s got a cheeky, lovely side to him. He was a great character. That smile was always so lovely. He loved music, he loved performing, right the way through our school and everybody, every teacher at Hermitage had a big impact on him – Harry Styles’ primary school teacher Mrs Vernon, speaking about the former One Direction star after he stopped his show at Old Trafford cricket ground on Wednesday to give her a shout-out.
Bean is such a weird man and – I like to think at least – far removed from my own personality, the distance I have to move in order to play him is actually very reassuring. It’s like entering a completely different world and I’m very happy in his world – actor Rowan Atkinson on playing Mr Bean.
Let’s address, ‘Could a straight man do what I did in Philadelphia now?’ No, and rightly so. The whole point of Philadelphia was: don’t be afraid. One of the reasons people weren’t afraid of that movie is that I was playing a gay man. We’re beyond that now, and I don’t think people would accept the inauthenticity of a straight guy playing a gay guy – American actor Tom Hanks on his role in the film Philadelphia.